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Summaries Of The News:

U.S. District Court Judge Rosemary M. Collyer ruled the House can pursue its claim that the administration violated the Constitution when it spent public money that was not appropriated by Congress to pay for the health insurance subsidies.

The Associated Press:
Judge Clears Way For House Lawsuit Challenging Health Law
A federal judge cleared the way Wednesday for a legal challenge by congressional Republicans to President Obama's health-care law to proceed. U.S. District Court Judge Rosemary M. Collyer ruled the House can pursue its claim that the administration violated the Constitution when it spent public money that was not appropriated by Congress. At issue is the more than $175 billion the government is paying insurance companies over a decade to reimburse them for offering reduced co-payments for lower-income people. (Biesecker, 9/10)

Los Angeles Times:
Judge Allows Unusual House GOP Lawsuit Against President To Proceed
The judge rejected pleas by Obama’s lawyers to dismiss the House lawsuit on the grounds it involved a political dispute, not a legal one. Collyer noted that the House claimed it would suffer an “institutional injury” if the president and his aides could spend money on their own authority. Her ruling is only the first step, however. She told lawyers she would hear arguments in the fall on whether the administration’s action violated the Constitution. (Savage, 9/9)

The Washington Post:
House GOP Can Pursue Part Of Health Care Lawsuit, Judge Rules
House Republicans filed their lawsuit challenging Obama’s executive actions in November. Criticized as a political ploy by Democrats, the lawsuit targeted two aspects of the health care law’s implementation: the delays in enacting the employer mandate, which requires most larger companies to offer health insurance, and the use of unappropriated funds for cost-sharing subsidies designed to alleviate out-of-pocket medical costs for people with lower incomes. (Viebeck, 9/9)

Reuters:
U.S. Judge Rules Republicans Can Pursue Obamacare Lawsuit
The Department of Justice will appeal the court's ruling, said spokesman Patrick Rodenbush. An appeal could further delay proceedings on the merits of the claims. White House spokeswoman Jennifer Friedman called the decision unprecedented. "This case is just another partisan attack, this one, paid for by the taxpayers; and we believe the courts will ultimately dismiss it," she said in a statement.. (Dunsmuir, 9/9)

CNN:
Judge Greenlights Obamacare Challenge
"The ruling today means that the United States House of Representatives now will be heard on an issue that drives to the very heart of our constitutional system: the control of the legislative branch over the 'power of the purse,'" said lawyer Jonathan Turley, who is representing the House. "The House filed this lawsuit after the administration openly violated the Constitution by paying -- and by continuing to pay -- billions in public funds to insurance companies under an Affordable Care Act program without any appropriation from Congress," he said. (De Vogue, 9/9)

Stakes are high in this political showdown, and the White House has issued a warning to Congress over the looming deadline, saying a shutdown would be “wildly irresponsible.”

The Washington Post:
GOP Tries To Avert Shutdown As Right Spoils For Planned Parenthood Fight
Congressional Republican leaders returned to Washington this week with no clear plan for extending government funding later this month that risks shutting down federal agencies amid a growing outcry from conservatives ready for a fight over funding Planned Parenthood. The once-normal process of approving a stopgap bill that keeps the federal government operating on the previous year’s fiscal budget has become anything but routine during House Speaker John A. Boehner’s five-year tenure. (Kane and Snell, 9/9)

Reuters:
As Republicans Slam Planned Parenthood, Shutdown Threatens
Congressional Republicans showed no signs on Wednesday of having a clear plan for averting a U.S. government shutdown in three weeks over funding for Planned Parenthood, though senior party leaders have made clear they want to avoid that scenario. As has happened before, a shutdown on Oct. 1 would likely rattle financial markets. But Republicans had little to say about this in their remarks about the women's health group and conservatives' demands that its federal funding be cut off. (Lawder and Dunsmuir, 9/9)

Politico:
On Planned Parenthood, Both Sides See A Winner
Congress is about to find out what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object. Both Democrats and conservative Republicans are vowing not to budge from their entrenched positions on Planned Parenthood funding even at the risk of a government shutdown on Oct. 1 — creating a political showdown between the two parties that deeply appeals to their base and promises to make life miserable for Speaker John Boehner. (French and Haberkorn, 9/9)

The Washington Post:
Obama Issues Familiar Warning To Congress: Don’t Shut Down The Government
Inside the White House, however, there is growing alarm that the congressional fight over the budget could result in the second shutdown in three years, after the government was shuttered for 16 days in 2013 over Republican opposition to Obama’s health-care law. GOP leaders in both chambers have vowed not to repeat that process. But conservatives led by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), a presidential candidate, have threatened to oppose a spending plan that maintains funding for Planned Parenthood. That has left the outcome uncertain as federal spending authority expires Sept. 30. (Nakamura, 9/9)

In related news -

CQ Healthbeat:
GOP Urged to Reverse Obamacare Taxes Via Reconciliation
A loose alliance of businesses and conservative groups has urged Republicans to emphasize tax cuts in an emerging House GOP reconciliation bill intended to repeal parts of the 2010 health care overhaul and reduce the deficit. The outside groups are urging Republican to strike revenue raisers in the health care law, including a 3.8 percent surtax on wealthy taxpayers' investment income and a number of business-related taxes, fees and penalties. (Ota, 9/9)

In the opening salvo of the long-awaited hearings, neither Planned Parenthood nor the anti-abortion group behind the Planned Parenthood sting videos testified.

NPR:
House Begins Series Of Hearings On Defunding Planned Parenthood
House Republicans want to defund Planned Parenthood, and that effort began today with the first in a series of hearings. This was all prompted by sting videos that sought to implicate the women's health group in various crimes related to the collection of fetal tissue for research. NPR's Jennifer Ludden reports that much of today's discussion focused on the morality of abortion itself. (Ludden, 9/9)

The Washington Post:
Planned Parenthood Hearing On Hill Evokes Old Battles Over Abortion
A congressional hearing on Planned Parenthood’s tissue-donation program Wednesday devolved into an ideological clash over abortion rights as lawmakers sparred over the definition of “baby” and the appropriateness of certain abortion techniques. Planned Parenthood officials were not invited to testify at the hearing before the House Judiciary Committee, nor were activists with the Center for Medical Progress, an antiabortion group whose undercover videos targeting the women’s health organization triggered the hearing. (Somashekhar, 9/9)

The Associated Press:
House Chairman: Planned Parenthood Probe Protects Taxpayers
Opening long-awaited congressional hearings, a top Republican said Wednesday an investigation of Planned Parenthood was intended to protect taxpayers from the kind of “horrors” suggested by secretly recorded videos of group officials discussing the sale of tissue from aborted fetuses. In a session highlighted by partisan clashes, Democrats said the investigation by the GOP-led House Judiciary Committee was just the latest in a decades-long effort to curtail abortion rights and was based on deceptively edited videos that show no evidence of wrongdoing by Planned Parenthood. (Fram, 9/9)

Los Angeles Times:
Abortion 'Survivors' Criticize Planned Parenthood On Capitol Hill
As conservatives redouble efforts to end Planned Parenthood’s government funding, House Republicans on Wednesday fueled an already emotional and partisan debate by hearing testimony from two women who were born during botched abortions in the 1970s. “If abortion is about women’s rights, then what were mine?” asked Gianna Jessen, who was left with cerebral palsy due to a lack of oxygen during her mother’s attempt to terminate the pregnancy. (Howard, 9/9)

Politico:
Abortion Returns To Election Spotlight
The anti-abortion group behind the Planned Parenthood sting videos didn’t testify at the first congressional hearing into the controversy — but it is already making abortion a 2016 campaign issue. And Republicans and Democrats alike are convinced they can use it to their own advantage. (Haberkorn, 9/9)

The union is calling for a strike vote to help bolster its bargaining position. Also in employee benefit news, Kraft Heinz is moving some retirees to health exchanges.

The Wall Street Journal:
UPS Pilots Union Calls For Strike Vote
The union expects to report an affirmative vote on Oct. 23, however, a strike doesn’t look likely at this point. Supply-chain and shipping industry consultants view the vote call as a bid to push UPS closer to meeting the pilots’ demands on sticking points that include health-care and retirement benefits. (Stevens, 9.9)

Bloomberg:
Kraft Heinz Pushes Retirees To Health Exchange To Cut Costs
Kraft Heinz Co., which counts Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. as its largest shareholder, is pushing some of its retirees to health exchanges as the company cuts expenses. The foodmaker is eliminating some benefits as it seeks to provide care in “the most cost-effective manner,” according to a letter to retirees and their spouses dated Sept. 1, a copy of which was obtained by Bloomberg. (Schmidt and Giammona, 9/9)

And more news of mergers in the insurance industry -

The Wall Street Journal:
Sun Life To Buy Assurant’s Employee-Benefits Business In $975 Million Deal
Sun Life Financial Inc. agreed to buy the employee-benefits business of Assurant Inc. in a complicated transaction valued at $975 million, the latest sign of consolidation in the insurance industry. The transaction is part of a deal boom that is combining companies across the health, life and property-casualty insurance sectors. While the Canadian insurer’s purchase of the Assurant unit is much smaller than property-casualty insurer ACE Ltd.’s pending $28.3 billion acquisition of Chubb Corp., it is more typical of the deals that industry executives, bankers and analysts expect in coming months. Sun Life is based in Toronto. (Scism, 9/9)

In other marketplace news -

Bloomberg:
Express Scripts' Wentworth To Take CEO Role As Paz Retires
Express Scripts Holding Co. President Tim Wentworth will become chief executive officer in May, succeeding George Paz, who will remain chairman of the company he helped build into the largest pharmacy-benefit manager. Paz, 60, has held the CEO position since 2005 and has been an executive at Express Scripts since 1998. Wentworth, 55, joined the company as part of the acquisition of Medco Health Solutions Inc. in 2012 and became president in January 2014. (Langreth, 9/9)

The Associated Press examines the shake-up in the "once-simple doctor-patient relationship, which for generations has served as the gateway to the U.S. health care system." Also, a study compares doctors' hospital referral patterns and the American Board of Anesthesiology is opting to allow its members to forego board recertification.

The Associated Press:
Retail Clinics, Apps Change Doctor-Patient Relationship
Tom Coote suspected the stabbing pain in his abdomen was serious, but the harried doctor at the urgent care center suggested it was merely indigestion. Coote also suspected that his recently retired family physician would have taken more time to diagnose what turned out to be appendicitis. ... Coote's experience reflects a wider change in American medicine: A shortage of primary care physicians and emerging alternatives such as retail clinics and smartphone apps are clouding the once-simple doctor-patient relationship, which for generations has served as the gateway to the U.S. health care system. (Murphy, 9/9)

The Washington Post:
Doctors’ Group Will Scrap 10-Year Re-Certification Exam
The professional group that represents anesthesiologists will become the first medical board to scrap a widely criticized test that most physicians take every 10 years to demonstrate that they are up to date in their specialties, officials said Wednesday. Beginning next year, the American Board of Anesthesiology instead will offer its 50,000 “board-certified” members the opportunity to show their mastery — and brush up if they fall short — through weekly online quizzes that they can take at will, coupled with educational material. (Bernstein, 9/9)

The Washington Post examines the hospital and medication costs associated with giving anti-venom. In the meantime, Bloomberg looks at why some venture capitalists' bet on a diet pill failed.

The Washington Post's Wonkblog:
The Crazy Reason It Costs $14,000 To Treat A Snakebite With $14 Medicine
Every once in awhile somebody will go and get themselves bitten by a venomous snake, and come home with an outrageous hospital bill that makes headlines. Nobody expects antivenom to be cheap. Making the most common rattlesnake antivenom, for instance, involves injecting sheep with snake venom and then harvesting the antibodies produced by the animals' immune systems. But does that process, complicated as it may be, add up to the estimated $2,300 per vial hospitals pay for the stuff? (Ingraham, 9/9)

Bloomberg:
These Venture Capitalists Bet Big On A Miracle Fat Pill And Lost
Imagine a pill that mimics the effects of vigorous exercise on the body. Three years ago, Bruce Spiegelman, a prominent Harvard scientist, said he had discovered an “exercise hormone” that promised to unlock a new way to treat obesity and diabetes. It didn’t take long before a leading biotech VC firm, Third Rock Ventures, made a big bet on the hormone. Feverish press coverage followed, hailing a potential new miracle drug. So why did Third Rock quietly pull the plug on the project earlier this year? (Chen, 9/10)

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., a candidate for president, has joined with another lawmaker to advance legislation that would empower Medicare to negotiate pharmaceutical prices. Meanwhile, in Senate campaign news, former U.S. Attorney Conner Eldridge is launching an effort to unseat Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark.

Lawmakers on Wednesday passed a bill that would allow physicians to prescribe life-ending drugs to terminally ill patients. The measure, which is opposed by the Catholic Church and others, must now gain the state senate's final approval.

Los Angeles Times:
California Assembly Approves Right-To-Die Legislation
After nearly a quarter-century of efforts in California to afford terminally ill patients the right to end their lives with a doctor’s help, state lawmakers and the governor may be on the verge of granting the dying that authority. The state Assembly on Wednesday passed a bill that would allow physicians to prescribe life-ending drugs to the terminally sick. The End of Life Option Act, which the Catholic Church and others oppose, awaits final approval by the Senate -- three months after that chamber passed a similar bill by a thin margin. (McGreevy and Willon, 9/9)

KQED:
Physician-Assisted Suicide Bill One Step From Governor’s Desk
Supporters of a controversial bill to legalize physician-assisted suicide in California have two more days to get their legislation to the Governor’s desk. The bill cleared one of its last major hurdles in the Assembly on Wednesday, with members voting 42 to 33 to allow doctors to prescribe lethal medication to terminally ill patients who request it. (Dembosky, 9/9)

Reuters:
Assisted-Suicide Bill Approved By California Assembly
A hard-fought measure to allow physician-assisted suicide in California passed the state Assembly on Wednesday despite opposition from religious groups and advocates for the disabled, moving to the state Senate where it is widely expected to pass. The measure, which would allow doctors to prescribe medication to some terminally ill patients to end their lives if taken, passed 43-34 after weeks of hearings and passionate debate. (Bernstein, 9/9)

At issue is a Commonwealth Court judge's order in May that says UPMC must maintain in-network rates until 2019 for people insured by Highmark Medicare Advantage plans. UPMC canceled its Medicare Advantage contract with rival Highmark in April.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
Highmark, UPMC Medicare Advantage Decision Possible In Weeks
Highmark’s Medicare Advantage members could learn within several weeks whether UPMC doctors and hospitals will remain in their insurance coverage network. The state Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to hear arguments next month in a bitter feud over the federal program, granting an application from UPMC for speedier proceedings. The court set a 9 a.m. hearing for Oct. 6 ... Highmark Health and state officials are fighting a UPMC request to block in-network access for enrollees on the insurer’s Medicare Advantage plans starting Jan. 1. (Smeltz, 9/9)

The Associated Press:
Supreme Court Gives UPMC Expedited Appeal In Highmark Battle
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has granted the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's request for an expedited appeal in UPMC's battle over Highmark's Medicare Advantage rates. UPMC is appealing a Commonwealth Court judge's order in May that says UPMC must maintain in-network rates until 2019 for people insured by Medicare Advantage plans sold through insurer Highmark. The judge also ordered the companies into arbitration over a state-mediated consent decree the parties signed last year. (9/9)

Meanwhile, news outlets also report on the latest Medicaid developments in Kansas and Illinois.

Arkansas Online:
Medicaid Limbo Catches 31,400
As of Aug. 2, as many as 31,400 Arkansans had been waiting longer than the maximum time allowed for word that their applications for Medicaid had been approved, according to numbers from the state Department of Human Services. Federal rules allow a maximum of 45 days for state Medicaid agencies to process applications. Some of those applications have been pending since last year, according to an Arkansas Medical Society official. The delays have been widespread among mothers seeking coverage for newborns, said David Wroten, executive vice president of the medical society. (Davis, 9/10)

Wichita Eagle:
Kansas’ Medicaid Opt-Out Partly To Blame For Independence Hospital’s Closure
Kansas will lose its first hospital in nine years when Mercy Hospital in Independence begins a phased closure starting Oct. 10 – a victim of changes in hospital reimbursement and slow depopulation. The hospital has struggled financially for a few years and officials tried for months to negotiate agreements with other hospitals in the region. In late July, they signed a preliminary agreement to sell its assets to Coffeyville Regional Medical Center, but last week officials said they were calling a halt the talks without an agreement. (Voorhis, 9/9)

The Chicago Tribune:
IlliniCare Fires Back Over Cook Country Contract Termination
The company running Cook County's Medicaid insurance plan that was fired last month warned that changing administrators "threatens a major disruption" to the plan's 171,000 members. Jeff Joy, president and CEO of IlliniCare Health Plan, made his first public comments Wednesday about the termination of a $1.8 billion, five-year contract awarded last year. IlliniCare provides the back office and operational infrastructure to CountyCare, the Medicaid managed care plan of the Cook County Health & Hospitals System, the two-hospital safety net for the poor and uninsured. (Sachdev, 9/9)

Meanwhile, in the midst of the Illinois budget stalemate, Democrat and Republican legislators joined forces to reject Gov. Bruce Rauner's rewrite of the bill aimed at reducing heroin use.

NPR:
Baltimore Fights Heroin Overdoses With Antidote Outreach
A suspected case of measles. A rabid fox on the loose. A recall of a dye used in tattoos. A drug epidemic that's claiming hundreds of lives. Those are just a few of the problems that Dr. Leana Wen confronts in a typical week as the Baltimore City Health Commissioner. While they all have to be dealt with, it's clear that heroin is among Wen's gravest concerns. Right now, she's focused on stopping overdoses and saving lives. (Cornish, 9/9)

The Chicago Tribune:
Lawmakers Overturn Rauner Veto Of Heroin Abuse Bill
Senate lawmakers on Wednesday set aside a months long partisan battle long enough to override changes Gov. Bruce Rauner made to legislation aimed at reducing heroin abuse, but the truce proved to be short-lived when talks turned to the budget stalemate. Democrat and Republican legislators voted 44-11 to reject Rauner's rewrite of the bill, which eliminated a portion of the wide-ranging measure that would have required the state's Medicaid health care program for the poor to pay for medication and therapy programs to treat addiction. (Garcia and Geiger, 9/9)

Health care stories are reported from New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, California, Kansas and Illinois.

Reuters:
New York Health Insurer Hacked, Over 10M Members Possibly Affected
Upstate New York health insurer Excellus BlueCross BlueShield on Wednesday said its computer systems and those at affiliates had been breached, exposing data from more than 10 million members, in the latest case to show the industry is still struggling to ward off hackers. The Rochester-based insurer said it and its affiliates had been the target of a sophisticated cyber attack and that it was taking steps to address the situation and offering free identity theft protection services to those affected. (Berkrot, 9/9)

The Philadelphia Inquirer:
Surprising Medical Bills Will Be Discussed At Hearing
Momentum is building in New Jersey and Pennsylvania to protect consumers against surprise medical bills from out-of-network providers. NJ for Health Care and Consumer Union on Wednesday released a report in support of a bill that would establish arbitration procedures to deal with out-of-network bills, require audits of health plans to ensure that their networks are adequate, and mandate a database of paid in-network claims to bring transparency to payments by insurers. (Brubaker, 9/10)

The Philadelphia Inquirer:
Doylestown Health Partners To Manage Some Humana Customers
Doylestown Health Partners, a joint venture between Doylestown Hospital and about 440 primary care and specialist physicians, entered a contract to manage Humana's 3,200 Medicare Advantage customers in Bucks and Montgomery Counties. Humana, based in Louisville, Ky., agreed in July to be acquired by Aetna for $37 billion. In July, Humana had 8,246 Medicare Advantage customers in the eight-country Philadelphia region. Nationwide, Humana has 1.5 million Medicare Advantage customers, the company said. (Brubaker, 9/9)

Stateline:
To Make Better Policy, States Seek Better Death Certificates
Robert Anderson may know more about death than anybody else in the United States. Anderson is chief of mortality statistics for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Information about death flows into his suburban Maryland office from all over the country, detailing not only how many Americans have died—2,596,993 in 2013—but the causes of those deaths. Researchers use the information to learn what kills Americans, and public officials use it to craft policies to improve health and safety. On the best certificates, the information is accurate and complete. That would mean, for example, that the death certificate would say not only that someone had died of a drug overdose, but that the drug had been heroin. If the departed had died of cardiac arrest, the certificate would say that death resulted from a heart attack and it would disclose that the person had been a lifelong smoker and overweight. Unfortunately, many death certificates are incomplete or inaccurate. (Ollove, 9/9)

California Healthline:
Day Care Worker Vaccine Bill Approved
Paid workers and volunteers in day care centers will be required to get immunizations from whooping cough, measles and the flu, under a bill that passed an Assembly floor vote on Tuesday. SB 792, by state Sen. Tony Mendoza (D-Artesia), already was approved by the Senate, which means it now needs only the technical concurrence vote in the Senate before it is sent to the governor for a signature. That concurrence could come as early as Wednesday, state officials said. (Gorn, 9/9)

The Chicago Sun-Times:
Emanuel Cracks Open The Door To Tax On Sugary Soft Drinks
Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday cracked the door open to a tax on sugary soft drinks to curb obesity and diabetes that drive burgeoning health care costs. For four years, Emanuel has chosen the carrot over the stick, promoting “personal responsibility” while pressuring Coca-Cola and other soft-drink giants to contribute to city wellness programs and offer healthier vending-machine products. (Spielman, 9/9)

The Wall Street Journal:
Congress Can Sue Obama
Remember all the mockery, from the media and White House, when House Republicans sued President Obama for rewriting ObamaCare without proper legislative authority? Well, what do you know, a federal judge ruled Wednesday that the House has legal standing to sue and pursue the case on the merits. (9/9)

Health Affairs:
Implementing Health Reform: House Can Sue Administration Over ACA Cost-Sharing Reduction Payments
Judge Rosemary Collyer of the federal district court for the District of Columbia entered an order refusing to dismiss the complaint of the House of Representatives in House v. Burwell. ... she refused to dismiss the central claim — that the administration is illegally, indeed unconstitutionally, paying out billions of dollars to insurance companies that are reducing cost-sharing for low-income marketplace plan enrollees, as the insurers are required to do under the Affordable Care Act. ... The case will certainly be decided ultimately by the D.C. Circuit, perhaps by the Supreme Court. In the meantime, however, insurers that participate in the marketplaces will be subject to considerable uncertainty, and if there is anything that health insurance markets do not need now, it is uncertainty. (Timothy Jost, 9/10)

The Chicago Sun-Times:
Sen. Kirk: Renew Medical Benefits For 9/11 First Responders
After September 11, volunteers from all corners of the United States came to ground zero. These men and women stepped forward to confront the horror of that day for days, weeks and months to come. Killed on 9/11 were 2,977 men, women and children, and the wounds our nation suffered will never be forgotten. The victims we forget are those first responders who still suffer serious health problems — like respiratory illnesses and cancers caused by toxins and carcinogens inhaled at the terror sites. Many of those first responders who suffer in silence today are right here in Illinois. (Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., 9/9)

The New York Times' Room For Debate:
Helping A Suicide When The End Isn’t Near
Several states have passed laws allowing terminally ill people to commit suicide with help from a physician, and more states are considering it. Some nations, though, have gone further, by permitting such assistance to people with serious, nonfatal, health problems, even severe depression. Is that a dangerous step on a slippery slope toward euthanasia, or an appropriate way to help people who suffer unbearably? Should some people who are not dying be permitted assistance in killing themselves? (9/10)

The Philadelphia Inquirer:
Is Your Local ER Prepared To Care For Your Child?
Each year, almost 90 percent of the 30 million kids 18 years or younger who end up in the Emergency Department are treated in general community hospitals. Unfortunately, many emergency rooms are not equipped well enough to treat children, and doctors and nurses there may not have training in pediatric care. EDs which cared for 14 children or less per day, had a median weighted pediatric readiness score of only 69, out of a 100 point scale. The median score jumped to 90 for EDs which cared for more than 27 children per day, according to the results of a national assessment of 4,000 U.S. hospitals on the readiness of their pediatric EDs published in JAMA Pediatrics earlier this summer. (Hazel Guinto-Ocampo, 9/10)